How to Create an Assistant Routine from the Google Clock App

I’m a big fan of Google Assistant Routines. It helps you automate some of the cool Assistant features and run them when you want them to. We have a tutorial on how to set up Assistant Routines, in case you haven’t used this featured already.

Last week Google added a super useful enhancement to this feature. It is now possible to create and automate Routines from the Google Clock app.

How Does This Work?

When you set up an automated routine, it is very important to set when exactly it will run. Before this integration, there were two options. One, run the Routine using a voice command (for example, say “Ok Google Good Morning” to trigger a Routine that’ll read your morning news and switch on the coffee machine.) Two, at a specific time of the day.

The first option does not give you the complete automation, it still requires the specific command to run the Routine. The problem with the second option that you might miss the routine. Let us say, you set the Routine to run every day at 6 Am, hoping that you’ll be awake by then. What if you stay back in the bed for a little while longer? What if you didn’t even see the Routine running and woke up at 8 Am instead of 6 ? (I didn’t mean to scare you!).

The new Clock integration has a solution for this. In our example, the alarm goes off at 6 Am. You can link a Routine with this alarm. The Routine will trigger when you dismiss the alarm. It will not, if you snooze or completely ignore the alarm.

How to Link an Assistant Routine with Android Alarm

Open the Google Clock app and tap the down arrow next to one of the existing alarm, or, create a new alarm, and you should see the screen.

Click the + (plus) icon next to “Google Assistant Routine” The first time you do this, you’ll see this welcome screen:

Tap Set up Routine. You’ll see the screen to set up your first Routine.

Pick actions you want or change the order and tap the tick mark icon on the top right corner. You will be asked if you want allow the Assistant to tell you about your day from the lock screen. Tap “Allow” to save the new Routine.

That’s it! The next time you dismiss this alarm, you’ll see Assistant performing all those actions that you have created in this Routine. Refer to our How to Create Google Home Routines page for detailed instructions on how to set up Routines.